Is it necessary to warn that the teaching of all the Holy Fathers of the Orthodox Church on the fear of God is in agreement with the teaching of Holy Scripture, when the teaching of Holy Scripture serves as a source for the teaching of the Fathers, when both of these teachings have the same source – the Holy Spirit? "The fear of God is the beginning of virtue," says St. Isaac of Syria. — It is asserted that it is a product of faith, and is planted in the heart when the mind withdraws from the cares of this world in order to gather its wandering thoughts from absent-mindedness into the unceasing study of the future order... Manage to lay the fear of God as the foundation of your journey, and in a few days you will find yourself at the gates of the Kingdom, without the need for a long journey" [113]. Between the instructions of St. Pimen the Great, we read the following: "We need humility and the fear of God as much as we need breathing. The three main deeds of a monk are: to fear God, to pray to God, and to do good to one's neighbor. When the bees are driven away by the smoke from the hive, then their sweet labor is extorted: in the same way, carnal pleasure drives the fear of God out of the soul and destroys all its good work. The beginning and end of the spiritual path is the fear of the Lord. The Scripture says: The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom [114]. And again, when Abraham had built the altar, the Lord said to him: "For now you know that you fear God" (115). To his brother's question who says: "I am a partaker of all who fear Thee," the Great One answered: "The Holy Spirit says this about Himself." He also conveyed the saying of St. Anthony the Great about the Monk Pamba, that through the fear of God, Pamba made himself the abode of the Holy Spirit" [117]. "The beginning of our salvation," says St. Cassian the Roman, "is the fear of the Lord. They are given the beginning of conversion, and purification from passions, and the preservation of virtues in those who are instructed on the path of perfection. When it penetrates into the human heart, it engenders in it contempt for everything material, forgetfulness of relatives and hatred of the world itself" [118]. In the same Sermon, explaining the Lord's commandment: "Whosoever shall not take up his cross, and shall come after Me, is not worthy of Me," St. Cassian argues thus: "Our cross is the fear of the Lord. As the crucified can no longer convert or move the members according to the desire of his soul, so we must direct our will and desires, not according to what pleases and delights us at the present time, but according to the law of the Lord, to which he commands. As one nailed to the tree of the cross no longer admires the present, does not think about his passions: he is not amused by worries and cares about tomorrow; there is no desire to acquire property in it; he is not inflamed by any pride, by any quarrelsomeness; he does not grieve over present dishonors, he no longer remembers the past; although he is still breathing in the body, but in all respects he considers himself already dead, directing his heart's eyes to where he does not doubt to move, so we must be crucified by the fear of the Lord to all this, that is, we must be dead not only to the passions of the flesh, but also to their very beginnings, to have the eyes of the soul fixed there, resettlement where they should hope at any moment. In this way we can obtain the mortification of all our lusts and carnal addictions" [120]. It can easily be seen that the crucifixion on the cross of the fear of God, described here by St. Cassian, is an act called by Isaac of Syria, consisting, according to the expression of the Apostle, in the crucifixion of the flesh with passions and lusts,[121] constituting the first half of the spiritual path leading the Christian to the perfection predestined for him.

The Holy Scriptures, which teach us that the fear of the Lord is pure, abide for ever and ever,[122] also says that there is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, as fear has torment: fear thou shalt not be made perfect in love.123 This disagreement, which appears at a superficial glance, is explained by the Holy Fathers as follows: "There are two fears: one is leading, the other is perfect; one is characteristic of those who are beginning to pious, so to speak, the other is the property of perfect Saints, who have attained to the measure of love. For example, whoever does the will of God out of fear of torment, as we have said, is still a novice: he does not yet do good for the sake of good, but out of fear of punishment. The other fulfills the will of God because of the very love for God, loving the very will of God, fulfills it in order to please God. Such a person knows that it is essential good! such a one has come to know what it means to be with God! such has true love, which the Holy One calls perfect [124]. This love brings him into complete fear, because such a person fears and observes faithfulness to the will of God, not because of fear of punishments, not in order to escape (eternal) torment, but because, as we have said, having tasted the very sweetness of being with God, he is afraid to fall away, afraid to be deprived of it. By this perfect fear, acting on account of love, the leading fear is expelled. That is why it is said: Perfect love casts out fear. However, it is impossible to achieve complete fear except by introductory fear" [125]. The very greatness of God inspires holy, reverent fear in those rational creatures of God who, because of their purity and holiness, have been vouchsafed the immediate presence of God. God is glorified in the council of the saints, great and awesome over all those around Him [126].

Is it possible that we, because we are sinners, do not love God at all? "No!" let us love Him, but as He commanded us to love Himself; let us strive with all our might to attain holy love, but in the way that God Himself has shown us. Let us not indulge in deceptive and flattering conceits! let us not stir up in our hearts the flames of voluptuousness and vanity, so abominable before God, so pernicious to us! God commands us to love Himself in the following way. Be ye in my love, saith he. If ye keep My commandments, ye shall abide in My love, as I have kept the commandments of My Father, and abide in His love. The Son of God Himself, having become man, showed the image of this life and podvig, humbled Himself and being obedient even unto death, even the death of the cross [128]. Let us reject pride, which ascribes to us virtues; let us kiss humility, which reveals to us our fall and sinfulness. Let us prove our love for Christ by obedience {p. 64} to Christ; let us prove our love for the Father God by obedience to the Son God, Who did not speak to us of Himself, but proclaimed to us what the Father, Whose commandment is eternal life, commanded us to proclaim. If you have My commandments, said the Lord, and keep them, that is to say, you who love Me. If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word. Do not love Me, for He does not keep My words [130]. Keeping the Savior's commandments is the only sign of love for God accepted by the Savior. "For this reason, all those who were pleasing to God were pleased only by forsaking their righteousness, which had been damaged by the Fall, and striving to seek God's truth, set forth in the teaching and commandments of the Gospel. In the truth of God they found love, hidden from the fallen nature. And the Lord, having commanded many things about love, commanded first to seek the truth of God, knowing that it is the mother of love" [131]. If we wish to acquire love for God, let us love the commandments of the Gospel; let us sell our lusts and addictions, let us buy at the price of renunciation of ourselves the village – our heart, which without this purchase cannot belong to us; let us make it with commandments and find the heavenly treasure hidden in it — love [132].

What awaits us in this village? "Labors and illnesses await us, an adversary awaits us, who will not easily give us victory over himself, but sin that dwells in us awaits us to counteract us. It lives in the mind, lives in the heart, lives in the body. Intensified podvig is needed in order to incline the proud and blind mind to obedience to the commandments of Christ. When the mind submits to Christ, a new podvig begins: the agreement of the corrupt, stubborn heart with the teaching of Christ, the submission of the heart to the teaching of Christ, to which it is hostile. Finally, if the mind and heart come to a state of obedience to Christ, the body destined for heaven must also be drawn into it. Each step in our invisible struggle is marked by podvig, marked by suffering, sprinkled with the sweat of intensified violence against ourselves. Now we conquer, now we are conquered; now there is hope for the dissolution of captivity, now again we see that our chains are strong, not in the least weakened by the means by which we thought to loosen them. We are overthrown by the weakness of nature, and the weakness of will, and the darkening of the mind caused by a former sinful life, and the disorder of the heart, which has acquired vicious habits, and the desires of the body, which has tasted the pleasures of beasts, and is infected with lust for them; fallen spirits will slander us, wishing to keep us in enslavement. This is the narrow and sorrowful path, strewn with thorns, along which prayerful weeping before God leads the sinner to reconciliation with God, aided by works of repentance, works of humility, the fulfillment of the Gospel commandments, inspired by the fear of God.

The union of the fear of God with Divine love is excellently depicted by the Spirit-bearing Fathers Isaac of Syria and Symeon the New Theologian. With their splendid words we adorn our wretched Word. "Repentance," says St. Isaac, "is given to men by grace for grace. Repentance is the second regeneration of us from God. We expect that through repentance we will be granted that the pledge of which we have received by faith. Repentance is the door of mercy, opening to those who seek it intensely. By this door we enter into God's mercy; except for this entrance, we will not find mercy: for if thou hast sinned, according to the word of the Divine Scriptures, we shall be justified by His grace [133]. Repentance is the second grace and is born in the heart from faith and fear. Fear is the father's rod that governs us until we reach the spiritual paradise of blessings; when we reach there, he leaves us and returns. Paradise is the love of God, in which is the enjoyment of all the beatitudes, where Blessed Paul was nourished with food above nature. Having eaten there of the tree of life, he cried out: "Whom eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor ascended into the heart of man, which God has prepared for those who love Him" (134). Eating from this tree was forbidden to Adam because of the deceit [deceit – Ed.] made by the devil. The tree of life is the love of God, from which Adam fell away, and joy no longer met him, but he worked and labored in the land of thorns. Those who have lost the love of God, even if they walk rightly, eat the bread of sweat in their deeds, which is commanded to eat the first-created after his falling away. Until we find love, until then our work is in the land of thorns; we sow and reap in the midst of thorns. Though our sowing would be a sowing of righteousness, yet we are hourly wounded by thorns, and no matter how much we labor for righteousness, we live in the sweat of our brow. When we find love, then we are nourished by heavenly bread, we are strengthened without work and labor. Christ is the bread that came down from heaven, and gives life to the world [135]. This is the food of the Angels. "He who has found love eats Christ for every day and hour. Whoever eats of this bread, He says, whom I will give, shall live forever [136]. Blessed is he who eats the bread of love, which is Jesus. And that he who has love for food has Christ God for food, John testifies, who says: The God of love is [137]. Then, he who lives in love enjoys the life that flows from God, and, being in this world, already here breathes the air of resurrection. This air is enjoyed by the righteous after the resurrection. Love is that Kingdom, the mysterious tasting of which the Lord promised the Apostles. That which is said, "Eat and drink at My table in My Kingdom"[138] — what does it mean if not love? This love is enough to nourish a person instead of food and drink. It is the wine that rejoices the heart of man [139]. Blessed is he who drank this wine. The incontinent drank it, and became reverent; sinners drank — and forgot the ways of their stumbling; drunkards drank — and became fasting; the rich drank and wished for poverty; the poor drank, and were enriched with hope; the sick drank, and became strong; the ignorant drank, and were reproached. "As it is impossible to cross the great sea without a ship, so no one can attain love without fear. The stinking sea, which lies between us and the paradise of thought, can be crossed in the ship of repentance, which has fear as oarsmen. If these oarsmen – fear – do not steer the ship of repentance, on which we sail the sea of the world to God, then we drown in the stinking sea. Repentance is a ship; fear is his pilot; love is the Divine harbor. Fear leads us into the ship of repentance and transports us across the stinking sea of life, directing us to the Divine harbor, to love, to which you strive for those who labor and are burdened with repentance. If we have attained love, we have attained God; our way is finished: we have landed on the island of that world, where the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit are."

The title of the second Homily in the book of St. Simeon, written in verse, contains the content of our entire Word, and therefore we place this title in the first place: "Love is born of fear; but through love fear is eradicated from the soul, and only love dwells in the soul, being the Divine and Holy Spirit."

Thou knowest, O Saviour, what I say! I have surpassed all nature, I have done works that are unnatural; I have proved to be the worst of the dumb, the worst of all the beasts of the sea, of all the beasts of the earth, truly the worst of creeping things and beasts, having transgressed Thy commandments more than the nature of the dumb, having defiled my body and dishonored my soul. How shall I appear to Thee? how shall I see Thee? how dare I stand, accursed, before Thy face? how shall I not flee from Thy glory, from the light with which Thy Holy Spirit shines? How can I not go into darkness alone, who has done the works of darkness? and I will be excommunicated from the multitude of the Saints! how shall I endure Thy voice, which sends me into darkness? Hence, bearing the condemnation of my deeds, I am all terrified, all trembling. Possessed by fear and terror, I cry out to Thee: My Saviour! I know that no one else has sinned against Thee like I, who has done the deeds that I, the accursed one, have done. I was the cause of the destruction of others. But even this again I know, O my God, that neither the greatness of sins, nor the multitude of sins, nor the impurity of deeds will ever surpass Thy loving and great, supreme, great, supreme word and supreme intellect, mercy, which Thou pours out abundantly upon those who sin and repent with warmth. Thou purify and enlighten them, and make them partakers of light, making them partakers of Thy Divinity without envy. Thou hast often conversed with them, as with Thy true friends, concerning things wonderful to the angels and to human thoughts. O immeasurable goodness! O ineffable love! That is why I fall down and cry out to Thee! {p. 68} As Thou hast received the prodigal and the harlot of those who have come, so receive me, O Generous One, who repent from the heart. Imputing drops of my tears to the springs that flow unceasingly, O my Christ, wash my soul with them. Wash with them also the defilement of the body caused by the passions; Wash your heart from all deceit: it is the root and source of all sin. Deceit is the sowing of the evil sower. Where it is, there it vegetates and ascends on high, and grows many branches of wickedness and malice. Pluck out its roots from the depths, O my Christ, and purify the fields of my soul and heart. Generous! Plant Thy fear in them. Grant him to take root and grow satisfactorily, so that he may grow high, multiplying hourly by keeping Thy commandments, and multiplying the flowing streams of tears by multiplying. Drunk with them more and more, he grows and rises. Along with fear, humility grows in proportion to it. All passions yield to humility, and with them the host of demons is driven away. All virtues are seen as following him, surrounding him as a queen, as a mistress of guardian, friend and slave. And when they are gathered together and united one with another, then the fear that Thou hast planted flourishes in their midst, like a tree by springs of water, and little by little it emits a strange colour. I said "strange," because every nature begets according to its kind, and the seed of all trees is in each according to its kind; but Thy fear produces both a flower strange to nature, and a fruit like a stranger and alien to itself. This fear is naturally filled with lamentation, and those who have acquired it are forced to mourn unceasingly, as slaves worthy of many punishments, as those who await every hour to be cut by death, who see the sickle of death, who do not know the hour of death, who have no hope, nor the announcement of perfect forgiveness, but tremble at the limit, terrified of the end, because of the uncertainty of the utterance that will follow at the judgment, O my God. The color produced by fear is inexplicable in appearance, still more inexplicable in image. It is seen as flourishing, but it is immediately hidden, which is not natural and not in order, that which is above nature, surpasses all nature. However, color is beautiful, surpassing all words, it delights my whole mind to its vision, not allowing me to remember anything of which fear brings knowledge, but then forgets all this in me and flies away quickly. The tree of fear is again left without color. And I grieve, and sigh, and cry out intensely to Thee! And again I see a flower on the branches of the tree! O my Christ! {p. 69} having my eyes fixed on one color, then I do not see this tree. But color manifests itself more often and, attracting all of me to itself by lust, ends in the fruit of love. Again, this fruit does not tolerate being on the tree of fear. On the contrary, when it is ripe, then it is seen alone, without a tree. Fear is not found in love, because, on the contrary, the soul does not bear fruit without fear. Truly a miracle, surpassing words, surpassing all thought! The tree flourishes with difficulty and bears fruit, but the fruit, on the contrary, uproots the whole tree, and the fruit remains, remains alone. Like a fruit without a tree? I can't explain it in any way. Yet he remains, yet he is, this love without the fear that gave birth to it. This love is truly the greatest joy, it fills the one who has acquired it with joy and spiritual delight, and banishes him from the world by feeling, which fear cannot do. Being within the visible and within the sensible, how can He place one who has acquired fear far from everything and copulate with the invisible by means of sensation (spiritual)? Truly, it cannot. These flowers and fruits, engendered by fear, are outside this world. Do they even now delight the soul and elevate and place outside this world? How, tell me, does this love place outside the world? I definitely wanted to know it. This is inexplicable: Love is the Divine Spirit."

How does the very change in the heart take place? How does it make the incomprehensible transition from fear to love? — Let us give an answer from the holy experience of the saints of God. Our contemporary and compatriot, the adornment and glory of later monasticism, George, a hermit of the Zadonsk monastery, a man who attained Christian perfection, says about himself in a conversation of edifying trust to his neighbor: "I want to say a few words about the essence of love. It is the subtlest fire, surpassing all intellect and lighter than all intellect. The actions of this fire are swift and wondrous, they are sacred, and are poured out upon the soul by the Holy, Omnipresent Spirit. This fire will only touch the heart, and every thought and feeling of restlessness is instantly transformed into silence, into humility, into joy, into sweetness that surpasses all. I have been frank about many things about myself before you; I intend to be frank again. I have spent six years here in my solitude, I think, when the Lord has pleased to bring my heart to utter contrition. Then I thought that I had already disappeared and that the wrath of God would burn my lawless soul, despondent and careless... I fell into great exhaustion and could hardly breathe, but I constantly repeated in my heart: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner." Suddenly, in an instant, all weakness fell away, and the fire of pure love touched my heart: I was completely filled with strength, feelings, pleasantness and inexplicable joy; I was so delighted that I already wished to be tortured, tormented, mocked; I wanted this in order to keep in myself the sweet fire of love for all. He is so strong and sweet that there is no sorrow or insult that he does not transform into sweetness. The more wood is added to the fire, the stronger the fire is: this is how the sorrows and sorrows inflicted by people affect us. The more attacks there are, the more the heart burns with holy love. And what freedom, what light! There are no words to explain: I would rejoice if someone were to deprive me of my eyes, so that I would not see the vain light; I would be glad if someone took me as a criminal and put me in the wall, so that I would not hear the voice, not see the shadow of a man..." [141] "Love," says St. Isaac of Syria, "knows no modesty, and therefore does not know how to give its members the appearance of decency. Love is inherent in the nature of rejecting modesty and forgetting one's own measures. Blessed is he who has found you, a haven of endless joy!" [142]

God's things come of their own accord at a time when we do not expect it or hope to receive it. But in order for God's favor to follow us, we need to purify ourselves first through repentance. In repentance all the commandments of God are combined. Through repentance, a Christian is led first into the fear of God, then into Divine love.

Let John, the virgin and theologian, the disciple whom Jesus loved, lie on the hands of Jesus. May the other Saints of God, the confidants of holy love, join him! This is not our place. Our place is in the host of lepers, the paralytic, the blind, the deaf, the dumb, the possessed. We belong to the number of them according to the condition of our souls, and among them we will approach our Saviour. Our Mother, the Holy Church, places us with them, putting into the mouths of her children the touching prayers of the akathist to the Most Holy Jesus, imbued with a sense of consciousness of their sinfulness. Our spiritual mother gives us our right position, so that the more certain it will be for us to receive mercy. The Lord adopted us as sons to Himself by Holy Baptism; but we have broken the holy covenant with Him by breaking His holy commandments, by a union of adultery with abominable sin. The princes of Sodom, the people of Gomorrah [144], this is how the Lord calls the people after their fall into iniquity, the people of whom He had previously declared: "There was a part of the Lord, Jacob his people, Israel is already His inheritance" [145].

The prodigal son, having lived in a foreign country of his father's property, having been subjected to unspeakable calamities, when he began to think about returning to his father, then, in this reflection, guided by his very miserable situation and the great wealth of his father, he predestined for himself the most prudent course of action. "Rising," he said, pondering his intention, "I go to my father, and I say to him, Father, forgive him! who have sinned in heaven and before Thee, and Thy Son is already worthy to be called: Make me as one of Thy hired servants [146]. The humility formed in his thoughts was actually realized by the son, and even more far away from him, his father saw him, and was merciful to him [147]. In the same way, having lost the beauty of adoption given to us by the Heavenly Father in vain and sinful occupations, when we decide to turn to Him, we must approach the Throne of His Glory and Majesty with deep humility, with reverent fear. Our first action should be the recognition and confession of our sins, the abandonment of a sinful life, and the entry into life according to the Gospel commandments. The soul of our prayers and other pious feats should be a sense of repentance. From the fullness of our conviction we must consider ourselves unworthy of love, unworthy of the name of the sons and daughters of God. Make me, saith the penitent prodigal son, as the only one of thy hired servants, who labor in the field of repentance, under the supervision of the formidable steward of fear. Let us not seek that the acquisition of which does not depend on us, for which we are not yet mature. As long as we are under authority, like the centurion mentioned in the Gospel, as long as sin and fallen spirits prevail over us, let us bear witness and confess with the prudent centurion: Lord, I am worthy, that Thou mayest enter under my roof: but only the word, and my servant shall be healed. Thou art most pure and most holy, resting only in the pure and holy; but I, who am defiled, am worthy, that thou mayest enter under my roof.

"I think," says St. Isaac, "just as a son does not doubt his father and does not ask him, saying: teach me art, or give me this and that, so a monk should not reason and ask God – give me this and that. He knows that God cares for us more than a father cares for his son. Consequently, we must humble ourselves, weep over the causes of our involuntary sins, committed by us either in thought or in deed, and from a contrite heart say in the words of the publican: God, be merciful to me, a sinner... [149] As the sick son of a king does not say to his father, "Make me king," but takes care of his infirmity, and after recovery the kingdom of his father becomes his kingdom of itself, so the repentant sinner, accepting the health of his soul, enters with the Father into the land of pure nature and reigns in the glory of his Father. Amen.

1844. St. Sergius Hermitage.

The Destinies of God